The Conservative Party remains fully committed to increasing foreign aid handouts while simultaneously claiming victory over the Labour Party on the issue of domestic spending cuts.
The latest bit of outrageous Tory doublespeak has come with the recent Tory shadow chancellor’s outburst that Gordon Brown had been “comprehensively defeated” in the debate on public spending.
Mr Osborne said Mr Brown’s confession that there would have to be cuts were a “complete capitulation” and that it confirmed that the Conservatives were right in calling for spending cuts to balance the budget.
The demand for spending cuts by Mr Osborne stands in direct contradiction of a published policy paper, available for public inspection on the Conservative Party’s website, which states that a future Conservative Party government will increase the amount of foreign aid Britain gives away to at least £14 billion.
The Tory party’s green paper on foreign aid contains a personal message from David Cameron in which he says that Britain’s foreign aid budget must be increased to a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product which is equivalent to an incredible £14.9 billion.
How the Conservatives square their calls for domestic spending cuts with an increase in foreign aid is not explained. Mr Cameron goes on to say that this spending increase is “ring fenced” — in other words, it is not to be touched no matter what else happens.
No matter how many unemployed in Britain, no matter how big the shortfall in NHS funding, no matter how poorly British troops are equipped, no matter how many teachers are sacked because of education cutbacks, British taxpayers can look forward to an increase in foreign aid spending on the Third World.
A review of just two of the latest foreign aid projects, announced within the last week, give some idea of what we can expect should the Tory disaster take power in this country:
– On 30 September, the Department for International Development (DFID) announced that it was allocating £14 million of your tax money to “drive economic growth across Central Asia.”
The three-year plan will, boasts the DFIF, “look at boosting the business climate across the region, strengthening public services and improving the effectiveness of development organisations.”
Hard-pressed British taxpayers will be happy to know that their money, instead of being put aside to help deflect domestic cuts, is being used to help “over one million people participate in rural growth programmes, including setting up new small businesses” in central Asia.
This region comprises the five former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
– On 2 October, the DFIF announced that it had provided “major” funding (but declined to say exactly how much) to a vaccine to protect cattle in eleven African countries against parasites.
The British National Party’s position on foreign aid is simple: only once there is no need or want amongst our own people, can consideration be given to helping other countries.
The BNP maintains that the budget deficit into which the Government has plunged this country must be sorted out before lavish promises of increased foreign aid can be made — the exact opposite of the Conservatives’ mad policy.
